Using Facebook to "Connect" with your customers online

Some people think Facebook is just for kids, but they'd be very wrong, because the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is career professionals, leaders and experts. 46 per cent of Facebook users are now older than 26 (as of February) and one of the other largest-growing demographics is women over 55.

Facebook has matured significantly from its early days as a glorified yearbook with new features being added all the time. One of the newer features, Facebook Connect allows Web site owners to bring social networking functionality onto their sites. Simply put, it's a cool bit of technology that allows you to link your site with Facebook and then pull customer information and tools out to display on your own site.

If an organisation wants to communicate with its audience or customers, the chances are that many of them are already on Facebook and they engage with it regularly. Many organisations' employees are already members so using Facebook Connect is a good way to distribute content, links to news or announcements and also to solicit comments from their audience and the community.

Another evolving way companies are using Facebook is with Facebook Pages. Facebook have recently allowed more flexibility with Pages, allowing for the development of what are effectively micro-sites within Facebook. An example being Gap's Born to Fit Facebook Page (http://www.borntofit.com). Creating a Facebook Page can be a good, dynamic place for an audience to get updated and engaged with what's going on with an organisation with minimal effect on the organisation's main website.

People refer to their friends for advice on purchasing decisions more and more these days and therefore creating deeper social integrations keeps users engaged with your website for longer and they are more likely to take actions they share with their friends.

I hear you asking, but what is really in it for my organisation? What's great about it is that it includes features to help websites to drive traffic, increase engagement, and most importantly for many to grow revenue. But how else does it benefit organisations? Well, users come to your site to consume your unique content. They take actions like commenting, reviewing, making purchases and rating. Users will also share with friends, who discover your site, completing the all important viral loop.  So in my view, with this great feature, Facebook has finally arrived for brands and organisations.